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SCMP Reporter

A WATCHDOG has warned of ecological disaster and a human rights catastrophe if the Chinese Government suppresses dissent and stifles expert debate on its decision to build the massive Three Gorges damn on the Yangtze River.

 Human Rights Watch/Asia raised the alarm in a report released today.

   It outlined concerns about arbitrary detention of opponents to the dam, potential abuse of labour rights of project workers, and the coerced re-location of more than one million residents from the Three Gorges region.

  The report also included information about a double dam collapse in Henan province in 1975. The incident has never been acknowledged by the Chinese Government although it claimed up to 230,000 lives.

  Limited-circulation Chinese government documents revealed a bad typhoon in August that year brought massive rainfall.

  It caused the collapse of the Banqiao and Shimantan dams on the Huai river in southern Henan, the report claimed.

  The report criticised the 1950s decision to build the two dams.

  'Instead of heeding the warnings of water conservancy experts, the Chinese leadership was more concerned about following chairman Mao's dictum that bigger was better.

     'Relevance to the debate over the Three Gorges dam is obvious,' it added.

   China's Ministry of Water Resources - which according to the report accepted full responsibility for the double dam collapse shortly after it occurred - had yet to respond to requests for more information, it said.

  The Human Rights Watch/Asia report also supplied what it claimed were two internal documents from Chinese public security officials in the dam region.

  In one, police in Sichuan's Wanxian Prefecture, fearing dissatisfaction with forced relocation from fertile flood plains to poor mountainous regions, pushed for harsh contingency plans to deal with any unrest.

  'Civil disputes, violent fights, and massive armed melees between groups of people will increase dramatically,' predicted the secret police report.

  China's official news reports on the resettlement of residents painted a rosier picture, down-playing opposition and promising there were adequate funds to help residents.

  Human Rights Watch/Asia also warned most dam workers would be temporary migrant labourers, prohibited from organising to improve conditions. And it pointed out that China's largest prison labour camp, the Shayang Farm, was only 100km from the site.

    The group asked foreign governments and businesses contemplating involvement with the project to assess the likely human rights impact, and to press for assurances against abuses.



Gorges disaster warning